Brown Sugar-Cured Turkey with Wild Mushroom-Shallot Gravy

Edible wild mushrooms, are featured in a rich-tasting gravy for this delicious turkey. Because it is cooked slowly at a low temperature, the turkey is extremely moist and flavorful. Apply the spice rub one day ahead. Uncork a bottle of Oregon Pinot Noir.

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Only make this turkey if you want to be asked to make it again and again and again. :-) I made this a few weeks ago for a family Fakesgiving and was called last Friday to make it again for the main event! Great turkey recipe.

Have also made (almost!) every year since 1997. It was the first turkey I ever made. We somehow started a fire with it, and made it only for the two of us on New Year's Day (because when we picked up the turkey my husband ordered on December 23, it was frozen solid) - we had a lot of leftovers!
One year I thought I'd try a different recipe from the same issue...everyone said it was good, but not AS GOOD. I've never looked back since.
We look forward to this every year, along with the gravy, cranberry sauce and balsamic roasted veg that go with it. I usually make a different stuffing though.

This was delicious and what a great way to get a
moist and perfectly spiced/seasoned turkey. I
used a 17lb for 6 people and didn't adjust the
amount of seasonings and i had some leftover.
Also it only needed just under three hours in a
convection oven so keep that in mind if you
convect. It didn't affect the moisture but it was
ready a lot sooner that I thought. Produced a gorgeous brown skin color. I felt like the
gravy was a little too rich with the cream and
would have been great with a regular turkey
gravy.

This is hands down the BEST turkey recipe ever. I am making it for my daughter's first grade Thanksgiving feast and can't wait for the oohs and aahs when they see how fabulous it looks - just like a cover of a magazine.

I have been making this turkey for 10 years. I have never had any turkey that touches the flavor and juiciness of this recipe. I am about to make it again to serve as cold sliced turkey for sandwiches at an afternoon party. My husband insisted!

I agree with the previous review! I
have made this every year since Nov
of 1997. It turns out perfect just
like the cover photo! My 8 year old
loves to prepare the turkey with the
rub etc. The wild mushroom gravy is
out of this world and so good it
could be eaten like a soup. The pear
salad that goes with this recipe is
a perfect match. Word of advice: Men don't let your
wives toss out your spices during
spring cleaning, they can get quite
expensive!

Every turkey I have made since 1997
has been based upon this recipe.
Even the "turkey haters" love this!
It's the only turkey my husband
likes to eat. I have never had a
single guest not ask for the
secret. :) Some have compared the
flavor to a Honey Baked Ham.
One of the best things about this
turkey is how amazing the house
smells when it's cooking! Heavenly.
It smells like the quintesential
Thanksviging - turkey and
spices. Yum.
I sometimes up the garlic and
cloves. Don't go too heavy on the
cloves or your guests will find
their mouths to be numb.
I don't always make the gravy as directed. However, the pan drippings are so incredible they only need a little extra broth, a thickener, and a little salt and pepper to make an
amazing gravy that tastes good on
the turkey as well as stuffing and
mashed potatoes.
It's about 2 weeks until
Thanksgiving and I'm tempted to make
this now and not wait.

I made this for New
Year's Day with my
extra free turkey-
day bird. The best
gravy I have ever
tasted!!! There
were 3 of us and
barely any gravy
leftover, will have
to double it next
time. Bird was so
juicy the
thermometer caused
a geyser! I look
forward to making
this again and
again.

I thought the gravy recipe was wonderful! It is now the most requested item on every holiday menu among my family. It is a little pricy and I had to use botton mushrooms instead of wild mushrooms (couldn't find them). But, it still comes out great each time I make it.
The turkey recipe was so-so. My family and I did not like the sweetness of the turkey, but it was moist and tender. The mushroom gravy goes very well with traditional roast turkey and that's how I make it very year. 4 forks way up on the gravy!

Every fall I check with the friends I celebrate Thanksgiving with to inform them of the new turkey recipes that appear in the cooking magazines. It's a simple ritual to prepare us to gush about how it wouldn't be Thanksgiving without the brown sugar cure. It produces the best turkey that any of us have ever tasted, from the most sophisticated foodies to the ones who don't normally care. We make gravy from the drippings, which makes for a succulent, sweet gravy that goes perfectly on the sourdough-apple-almond stuffing that you can find on this site.

I have used this turkey recipe every Thanksgiving since it appeared in Bon Appetit, and every year it has been so delicious and moist. This year, cooking for 28, I decided to get 2 smaller turkeys (about 12 lbs. each) instead of a 20+ lb. one, figuring that they would cook in less time & give me more use of my oven. Big mistake-I shortened the cooking time because of the smaller birds and gauged the doneness by the little pop-up thermometers. This year, the turkey was SO dry and because of the smaller surface area of the turkeys, the flavor was too intensified. A friend also uses the same recipe, and did so this year with a smaller turkey, too - she had the same disappointing results that I had. Obviously, the cooking temperature & timing is designed for a big bird. I'll use this recipe again, but with a big turkey in the future.

I prefer a maple syrup glaze from an earlier year in Bon Appetit Thanksgiving history, but this is my back-up turkey when I can't get everything I normally make for Thanksgiving (such as this year living off the road system in Alaska). And despite MY personal preference, this is the one everybody raves about.. oh so tender, oh so juicy, oh so everything -- and it's the one I should make if I ever DONT want the leftovers as everyone seems to keep picking at it for the next several hours (leaving more pie for me -- YAY!). The sugar does a better job than maple syrup at holding in the moisture and is a bit more flavorful than olive oil (although I used bacon when I lived in Ireland and that worked well, too), and with a proper balance with the onion and garlic powders and the salt nobody has ever complained of it being overly sweet -- but we also compliment it with a less sweet cranberry relish and no candied yams or anything like that. Okay so you have to baste it... but most turkey roasting recipes call for that, and if you like something different or your guests aren't the sort of carnivores who enjoy a chunk of meat for its own sake and need something to carry it, then this is the one that has satisfied even my most persnickety guests. I'm so glad it's online since I haven't had all my recipes shipped in here yet... Epicurious saved Thanksgiving :-)

Sorry to be the loan decenter, but...everything on my table tasted sweet with this sugar cured turkey. Wine, turkey, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes - there just wasn't enough savory food on the table since I rubbed sugar into the main course. Gotta to back to my standard olive oil rub! (Which, by the way doesn't need basting.)

I have been making this recipe for that last four years now and every Thanksgiving I get the same request to make this again. The slow cooking and brown sugar rub make this turkey so very moist. The wild mushroom gravy only enhances the wonderful flavorings.

This was excellent. Great, but different taste. Just made gravy using drippings (my guests didn't like mushrooms) - it was very good. I had a hard time trying to guestimate how long to cook my 12 1/2 pound turkey, since the recipe requires you to cook it at 300 when most cook time charts assume a 325 cooking temperature. When trying to figure out the cook time by looking on the web, I saw one source say that a turkey should never be cooked at lower than 325 (for safety reasons). I cooked it at 300 anyways and it worked out fine (even though it took longer to cook than I predicted).

My Mom makes this turkey every year for our family Christmas dinner -- it's always a special request from Dad. It's a fabulous change from traditional roast turkey. She doesn't even make the gravy; the turkey is wonderful on its own. Serve with homemade mashed potatoes and sweet potato casserole!

This is the fourth year I have made this recipe for Thanksgiving because I feel like I shouldn't mess with perfection! Don't look any further, what a great Turkey! Try the gravy as well, but cut the mushrooms and onions real small to make it more gravy like. But a great taste!

I wanted so badly to give this 4 forks, but it just didn't wow me like I thought it would based on the reviews!!! I will admit I did 2 things wrong: I didn't have course salt and couldn't find any, so I used a lesser quantity of regular salt, and I only let the bird sit for about 14 hours with the spice rub, not a whole 24 hours. I guess I thought the brown sugar would melt into a glaze or something in the oven, but it just kind of cooked onto the skin crusty-like. My husband did say it was very moist, but thought the skin tasted like jerky. Oh, well.

unbelievably delicious. crispy on the outside and buttery moist on the inside. It cooked faster than the recipe suggested, which was good--but keep your eye on that pop-out thermometer. our thanksgiving guests could not stop raving. this turkey not only tastes fab, it looks amazing, just like in the magazines. a total, major hit. oh one more thing - i added curry to the rub mixture. regarding the gravy, I made it as suggested but then removed most of the mushrooms and shallots w/a slotted spoon and served on the side. this made the gravy more "gravy-ish," not as thick and stewy.

Made this for skeptical family members, after dinner I was informed that I have been nominated for Thanksgiving dinners from here on out. Turkey came out nice and tasty and very tender was able to cut with a fork. Would reccomend to anyone who likes a more flavorful turkey.